In the recent Patch opinion article titled “What Are Priorities of Powder Springs?” published on Feb. 6, there are two errors that I would like to correct.

1. In the third paragraph, I was trying to compare the recent increase in elected officials retirement benefits to the recent one-time bonuses received by employees of the city.

I had done this in a prior article and showed that every three months of the mayor’s retirement benefit after 20 years of part-time service would yield an additional $480 compared to a city employee receiving a one-time bonus of $500 after three-plus years of no increases in salary. I inadvertently picked up the quarterly figure and typed it as “monthly." This is incorrect. The increase in retirement benefit would be $160 on a monthly basis.

2. In the last few paragraphs, I attempted to give examples of things that could be looked at that might yield savings and I referred to the budget item of $4,560 for “mayor cellular phones as shown in the 2012 budget." That statement was incorrect; the amount quoted was in the 2011 budget. The 2012 budget actually shows only $1,730 for “mayor – cellular phones."

I want to sincerely apologize to Mrs. Pat Vaughn, council members and readers of Patch for these errors and for any confusion and undue concern the errors caused.

—Ra Barr, Powder Springs